About Marco Tirelli

Marco Tirelli’s paintings depict abstract subjects and indeterminate forms interacting with light and shadow, such that they appear to occupy three-dimensional space. In explaining the roots of his work, Tirelli speaks about growing up in Rome: “I never felt entirely a part of it. And this has had a big effect on my work because I’ve always sensed a tension between places […] and what lies unseen beyond.” The forms on his monumental canvases are rendered with a soft sfumato that Tirelli has perfected over the course of years, creating careful gradations of charcoal on paper; in fact, the highlights and shadows in his later works are created using a pointillist technique, although with airbrushes rather than paintbrushes. To keep the purity of his paints, he filters them through tulle, and then dilutes them to achieve different levels of viscosity.

Italian, b. 1956, Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome, Italy, based in Spoleto, Province of Perugia, Italy